Saturday, October 24, 2020

All This Work Just To Post A Video -- Nothing About The Bakken -- October 24, 2020

It wasn't easy to find this story, but I needed the story to post one of my favorite videos. LOL.

Anyway, long story short -- western South Dakota -- Pine Ridge native American reservation -- lockdown -- roads "closed" for a week --- Covid-19 surges ... 

Link here

The Oglala Sioux Tribe is locking down the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on Friday, in response to a surging number of COVID-19 cases in the state.

The lockdown begins at 10 p.m. and lasts until 6 a.m. October 30, 2020. During that time, all non-critical travel is barred. [The roads will be re-opened just in time for Halloween and the entire weekend. Note when the lockdown ends: 6 a.m. October 30 is early Friday morning.]

The tribe said non-essential businesses should close to the public, and travel to non-essential work to or from the reservation should stop.

The lockdown comes as the state surpassed 9,000 active coronavirus cases on Thursday and reported an all-time high of 973 new cases in one day. Thursday’s numbers also matched a record high of 14 deaths in one day.

A reader brought this road closure story to my attention. In a sidebar discussion we mentioned the irritation cross-country drivers would experience if they unexpectedly ran into a road closure for these reasons. I noted:

The no-notice road closure -- it's funny how things affect us. I didn't think much about [the no-notice road closure] story when told about it. 
Last summer I was traveling cross-country and found myself in a bit of a pickle in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico at the Colorado state line --- couldn't get across for various reasons -- Native American issues to some extent -- ended up taking a long, long circuitous route -- and it turned out to be an incredibly beautiful drive. Had I been in a hurry, I would have been upset ... but I had all the time in the world. 

Years ago, I took the "long way" to California from Texas, driving "old highway 66" where I could. It was an incredibly beautiful drive, and so many unexpected adventures. This was the "pass" to Oatman, Arizona. 

Filming and listening to the song almost put me into a fugue state --- it took all my self-control not to purposely drive off / fly off a curve.

Shadows of a Man, Chris Isaak

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